Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Conservatives Don't Dance (SF Gate)
Is it like this across conservative America, too? Are there any smart, shimmering towns full of hardcore Republicans that frequently erupt in spontaneous outpourings of joy and wild bliss after some major sociocultural upheaval lands in its favor? Here is my guess: Probably not.
Alan Henry: Twitter Wants to Start Tracking You on the Web, Here's How to Opt-Out (LifeHacker)
In a blog post today [July 3], Twitter announced that they're "experimenting with new ways of targeting ads," which is their way of saying they're planning to track you around the web-even when you leave Twitter-and relay that information to advertisers to craft better ads. Here's how to opt out.
Hadley Freeman: "Glastonbury: the casual ageism directed at the Rolling Stones is really decrepit" (Guardian)
For various reasons I took a break from Glastonbury this year - in many ways, my brain is still in recovery from the last time around - meaning that I actually read the coverage of the festival and was both boggled and impressed by the tenacity of some of the misconceptions people hold about an event that has happened nearly every year for nearly half a century in this country.
Lucy Mangan: Why I Hate Summer (Guardian)
Ecclesiastes got it wrong. It should be "to everyone there is a season". And mine's winter. I like duvets, cardigans, baked potatoes, not shaving my legs, shoes with socks - on me and others - thick jeans, bleak landscapes, ice, snow, hot coffee, warm whisky, warm whisky in hot coffee, a blanket on the sofa watching box sets while eating another baked potato.
Alyssa Rosenberg: Stop Trying to Make Roseanne Happen (Slate)
The issues Roseanne brought up when her show premiered 25 years ago are just as urgent now as they were then, particularly given the erosion of manufacturing jobs and increasing income inequality. But if NBC really wants to tell stories about women and work, the network should invest in comediennes of the future, rather than turning wishfully to the past.
Book Titles With One Letter Missing (20 Pics)
The hashtag #bookswithalettermissing was trending on Twitter. In response, user @darth decided to do us all a favor and Photoshop some of the best entries.
Arielle Calderon: "15 Book Series To Read If You Enjoyed 'The Hunger Games'" (BuzzFeed)
Warning: You're about to fall down the rabbit hole. Say hello to your summer reading list.
June Thomas: Sugar Coma (Slate)
Candy Crush teaches me nothing and steals my time and money. I can't stop playing it.
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
From the "You gotta be kidding me" File...
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Not as hot, just as humid.
Online Community
July 4 Protest
The online community rallied on Thursday in support of live protests against the U.S. government's surveillance of internet activity, a practice recently exposed by a former contractor for the National Security Agency.
Websites such as Reddit and Mozilla supported a campaign in cities across the United States to "Restore the Fourth" - a reference to the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against unlawful search and seizure.
The home page of the website Boing Boing, for example, displayed the following message to the NSA: "Happy 4th of July! Immediately stop your unconstitutional spying on the world's internet users -- The People."
The online protest was launched by the Internet Defense League, a network of more than 30,000 websites and internet users whose goal is to protest attempts to curtail the freedom of the Web.
Evan Greer, a spokesman for the IDL, said nearly 13,500 Twitter users had taken part in a so-called thunderclap, in which they all tweeted the same or similar message at the same time to their more than 9 million followers.
July 4 Protest
Lock Of Hair Sells For $6,000
Mick Jagger
An anonymous buyer snapped up a lock of Mick Jagger's hair for 4,000 pounds ($6,000) after bidders pushed the price to double its pre-sale estimate, auction house Bonhams said.
The clump of hair was sold by the Rolling Stone's former girlfriend Chrissie Shrimpton, who is also the sister of 1960s English model Jean Shrimpton and first met Jagger when he was still an unknown student at the London School of Economics.
The hair, which comes in an envelope bearing the message "Mick Jagger's hair after being washed + trimmed by Chris at Rose Hill Farm", was sold on Wednesday to raise money for the Changing Faces charity, which works with people who have suffered facial disfigurements.
A set of handwritten lyrics by British singer David Bowie for his song "The Jean Genie" sold for 18,750 pounds at the auction where a guitar owned by rock group Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page also sold for 26,250 pounds alongside other music, film and entertainment memorabilia.
Mick Jagger
Royal Silver Penny
British Babies
British babies born the same day as Prince William and Kate's first child will receive their own royal gift in the form of a "lucky" silver penny.
The Royal Mint announced Thursday that it has minted 2,013 silver coins bearing a shield of the Royal Arms, to be given to newborns who share their birthday with the third in line to the British throne.
Crossing the palm of a newborn baby with silver or offering a silver penny is traditionally seen as a wish for good fortune and health.
Shane Bissett, director of commemorative coins at the Royal Mint, said the mint wanted to share the royal milestone with "mothers and fathers across the country."
British Babies
Anniversary Exhibit
Terry Fox
For three decades, Terry Fox's mother and father held on to boxes upon boxes of handwritten letters, poems, lovingly painted artwork and other tributes sent to their son by Canadians moved by his astonishing marathon.
Other memorabilia connected to the iconic runner were scattered across various institutions - items such as his Marathon of Hope T-shirt, or the jug of water he filled in the Atlantic at the beginning of his run in 1980 but never managed to dump into the Pacific as planned.
The Fox family now is teaming up with the federal government for an exhibition of more than 150,000 items from the Terry Fox Collection at the renamed Museum of History in Gatineau, Que. The showcase will open in April 2015, coinciding with the 35th anniversary of his Marathon of Hope.
Fox lost a leg to cancer when he was 18 and three years later took up the marathon on a prosthetic limb. His distinctive, hobbling gait became a symbol of stubborn determination and courage.
He started his run in April 1980, dipping his leg in the ocean at St. John's, N.L. The effort ended 147 days and 5,373 kilometres later outside Thunder Bay, Ont., when his cancer returned and forced him to abandon his project.
Terry Fox
Above The Law
Rupert
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has been recorded saying wrongdoing by his British newspapers was "next to nothing" and apparently acknowledging that his reporters paid police officers for information.
Staffers at two of Murdoch's British tabloids have been charged as part of police investigations into phone hacking and bribery spurred by revelations two years ago that his News of the World routinely eavesdropped on the mobile phone voicemails of celebrities, politicians, royals and crime victims.
In a tape published in transcript by the ExaroNews journalism website and broadcast Wednesday on Channel 4 News, Murdoch appeared to downplay the seriousness of the scandal and the police investigation.
Murdoch is heard saying, "it's the biggest inquiry ever, over next to nothing."
The outlets said the tape of Murdoch was recorded during a meeting with journalists at The Sun newspaper in March. Murdoch told the journalists: "We're talking about payments for news tips from cops: that's been going on a hundred years."
Rupert
Shadow Profiles
Facebook
Last week, Facebook confirmed that it had leaked the private information of six million of its users. You may have thought to yourself, "ha! That's not me! I don't give any of my personal information to Facebook!"
Unfortunately, thanks to your friends, it may turn out that your phone number and email address could have ended up in that leak, after all.
Your personal information may be included in something called a 'Facebook Shadow Profile,' a term that came up a lot over the last week while people were reporting how a bug had exposed the personal information of millions of users. The security research company who identified the bug, Packet Storm Security, said that Facebook has been compiling information on many of its users, and even on people who don't have Facebook accounts, ZDNET reports.
That's where shadow profiles come in: Facebook's shadow profiles include information culled from Facebook users' phones when they use the 'Find Friends' feature. When a user first installs Facebook on their smartphone, they get a prompt asking if they would like Facebook to scan the phone using the 'Find Friends' tool, which will look through all the phone numbers and emails in their phone, and match them to the profiles of existing Facebook users. It's a handy way to find people who you know on Facebook, but it's also a way for Facebook to gain access to personally identifying information.
Facebook
Dispensary Dispensation
Harborside Health Center
A medical marijuana dispensary billed as the world's largest cannabis store may stay open while the city of Oakland fights a U.S. government effort to shut it down or seize the property, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.
There has been a tug-of-war in California between federal and local authorities over cannabis sold for purported health reasons.
In February, Magistrate Maria-Elena James, the same judge who ruled on Wednesday, said the city had no right to intervene in a federal prosecutor's civil-forfeiture action against the Harborside Health Center, which was featured on the Discovery Channel reality TV show "Weed Wars."
The city appealed the ruling, and James's latest order allows the dispensary to continue to sell marijuana to individuals carrying a doctor's recommendation while the appeal is under review. James called the question of Oakland's legal standing in the case "a matter of significant public interest."
Harborside's landlords have moved to evict the store under pressure from federal prosecutors, who have threatened to seize the property as part of a U.S. government crackdown on what it deems to be illegal pot shops in California.
Harborside Health Center
Security Forces Raid TV Channel
Al Jazeera Egypt
Security forces raided the Cairo offices of Al Jazeera's Egyptian television channel on Wednesday and detailed at least five staff, hours after the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, a journalist at the station said.
Karim El-Assiuti told Reuters his colleagues at the Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr channel were arrested while working in the studio. The station was prevented from broadcasting from a pro-Mursi rally and its crew there was also detained, he said.
The Egyptian arm of the Qatari-owned media company began broadcasting after the 2011 uprising that topped President Hosni Mubarak and has been accused by critics of being sympathetic to Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood.
Al Jazeera Egypt
Flap Over Estate
Cuba
A dispute is brewing in Cuba over the estate of a prominent intellectual and close associate of the Castro brothers after authorities carried out a surprise search of his home.
Officials say they conducted an inventory of art, books, furniture and documents belonging to the late Alfredo Guevara, and three valuable paintings were determined to be missing.
His family members accuse authorities of carrying out an unjustified and intrusive weekend raid, breaking down doors, hauling away various items in trucks and refusing to explain their actions.
Alfredo Guevara was a filmmaker and longtime devoted communist with ties to Fidel and Raul Castro dating back to the brothers' days as young bearded rebels. He was a major figure in Cuba's cultural world following the 1959 Cuban Revolution until his death April 19 of a heart attack, at the age of 87.
Family members said more than 20 cultural officials and police carried out the search Saturday and Sunday and were still inside the home. The granddaughter said friends witnessed state agents removing various items in two trucks, and the family had tried unsuccessfully to reach Cuban cultural officials.
Cuba
Family Feud
'Mandela vs. Mandela'
A feud between factions of Nelson Mandela's family descended into soap opera farce on Thursday when his grandson and heir, Mandla, accused relatives of adultery and milking the fame of the revered anti-apartheid leader.
In a news conference broadcast live on TV that stunned South Africans, Mandla Mandela confirmed rumors that his young son, Zanethemba, was in fact the child of an illicit liaison between his brother Mbuso and Mandla's now ex-wife Anais Grimaud.
With Mandela on life-support in a Pretoria hospital, the escalating feud has transfixed and appalled South Africa in equal measure as it contemplates the reality that the father of the post-apartheid "Rainbow Nation" will not be around forever.
Two years ago, Mandla exhumed the bodies of three of Mandela's children from Qunu, where Mandela grew up, and moved them the 20 km to Mvezo, where Mandla has built a visitor center and a memorial center dedicated to his grandfather.
Despite his assertions, many of South Africa's 53 million people believe the exhumations were part of a deliberate plan to ensure Mandela was buried in Mvezo.
'Mandela vs. Mandela'
Ancient Carving Found In Garbage Pit
Roman God
An 1,800-year-old stone carving of what may be the head of a Roman god was recently found in an ancient garbage dump, British archaeologists announced today (July 3).
An undergraduate student at Durham University discovered the largely intact head during an archaeological dig at the Binchester Roman Fort, a major Roman Empire fort built around A.D. 100 in northeastern England's County Durham.
Archaeologists involved in the dig believe that somebody probably tossed the 8-inch-long (20 centimeters) statue in the garbage when the building was abandoned in the fourth century, during the fall of the Roman Empire.
The team is still not certain who the carved head is meant to represent, though they have noted its resemblance to a similar stone head discovered in 1862 inscribed with the name "Antenociticus" - a Celtic deity associated with military prayers in that particular region.
The team is particularly interested in the unique local aesthetic of the head, which combines classical Roman art and regional Romano-British art. Some of the facial features also appear to be African, though this remains speculative.
Photos of the Stone Head & Dig Site
Roman God
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